USA Ultimate

2012 US Open -- Women's Day 2 Recap

Riot’s tournament comeback is decidedly official: with a 14-7 win over the third-seeded Showdown, the Seattle-based team is prepared to dominate their remaining games at the U.S. Open. Riot’s defensive line was on fire in the first half of the game, which more than made up for the drops and too-deep puts that were occurring on both sides. Before Riot secured their enormous 8-0 lead at halftime, Calise Cardenas  (#7) coolly intercepted a Showdown disc, which was followed by Kristen Gruver’s (#27) out-of-nowhere, flying defensive grab in Showdown’s endzone, coming down with the disc along with three empty-handed Texans. This was followed by a third defensive block by Sarah Griffith (#6) on a Showdown in-cut. After half, however, Showdown began to assert themselves and immediately scored two points in a row. They amped up their defense and offense as Riot lagged, with players getting layout Ds on in-cuts and completing more deep throws, the tiny Kayla Ramirez (#33) reaching the disc in air before her Riot defenders could react. The initial point differential that Riot had created in the first half proved too difficult to overcome, however, and so the team came away victorious.

 

 

The Molly Brown vs. Scandal matchup—a repeat from 2011 Club Nationals, as the teams were once again respectively seeded 4th and 5th—proved especially exciting. Despite being seeded lower than the Colorado team, it seemed as if Scandal would come out on top from the get-go: they were undefeated and had even beaten Riot, while Molly Brown’s play had been less than consistent thus far. Scandal immediately took the lead and took half at 8-4, while Molly Brown struggled with holding on to the disc in the red zone. Once the score was 11-6 Scandal, however, Molly Brown put the foot on the gas pedal and it seemed as if nothing could slow them down. Anna Schott (#17) acted as a catalyst for Molly Brown’s newfound intensity, frequently receiving the disc in the endzone while tearing down discs from the sky left and right. On offense, Molly Brown became both patient and accurate at their endzone line, swinging the disc back and forth between handlers until they finally punched it in. A great example of Molly Brown’s patience was when Scandal’s tight cup forced the former team into the back left-hand corner of their own endzone. After narrowly dumping it a few times, a Molly Brown handler saw the opportunity to make an arcing forehand put to the midfield, where it was perfectly received and worked down the field for a fast score. Hard cap went on at 12-10 Scandal—just in time for the D.C. team to win 13-10 and clinch another seed-breaking victory and remain undefeated.

 

 

In the middle of Round Five, lightning struck—which meant that the AeroSoul vs. Scandal and Molly Brown vs. Riot games were cut short and the sixth round of the day was postponed until 10:30 A.M. tomorrow. This means that the Phoenix vs. Showdown and Ozone vs. Safari games will be played tomorrow, which may put those teams at a slight disadvantage (especially Phoenix, who will face the undefeated Scandal at 1:30 tomorrow and who will be looking to beat them). There will be at least two great games to watch tomorrow, both involving Phoenix—watch to see how they hold up playing three of their toughest games tomorrow.

 

 

Memorable Moments: